Roraback won't vote for death penalty repeal without end to prison release credits (document)

jfenster@nhregister.com

Published
7:00 pm EST, Thursday, February 23, 2012

HARTFORD — Death penalty repeal advocates may have one vote fewer locked down. State Sen. Andrew Roraback says he will not vote for repeal unless changes are made to the proposed legislation.

Roraback, from Goshen, currently running for the Republican nomination to Connecticut’s 5th Congressional district, voted in favor of repeal two years ago, when a similar bill made it to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, where it was vetoed.

Though he said his position is not related to the 5th district race, one of his Republican rivals, Lisa Wilson-Foley, jumped on the issue Wednesday after Roraback voted in favor of raising the bill in concept, a small step forward.

“All Republicans need to be counted and I urge state Sen. Andrew Roraback to reconsider his position and vote to keep the death penalty the law of the land,” Wilson-Foley said in a release.

To be clear, Roraback has not changed his position on capital punishment.

“I do not believe the state should be in the business of extinguishing life,” he said.

But he is linking the debate to another issue, and is refusing to vote in favor of repeal if another law isn’t repealed as well.

“I also don’t think that the state should be in the business of lying to the victims of crime and their families,” he said.

Last year, a bill was passed that allows convicted criminals access to Risk Reduction Earned Credits. Those credits, said Mike Lawlor, under secretary for state Office of Policy and Management’s Criminal Justice Planning and Policy Division, allow an inmate to get a sentence reduction of up to five days per month.

To earn those credits and receive that sentence reduction, an inmate must “do certain things” based on an individualized plan, Lawlor said, such as obtain a high school diploma and complete classes specific to the offense. If convicted on a drug offense, an inmate must complete drug rehab classes — if a sex crime was the conviction, then appropriate classes must be completed.

According to data issued by the OPM, 2,710 offenders received these earned credits between September 2011 and October 2011, some of them incarcerated in maximum security settings (though convicted murderers are not eligible). And, for now, the rolls are closed.

“Anybody who was going to get any credits has gotten them at this point,” Lawlor said.

Though Lawlor said the system is a common one across the country and has been shown to reduce the recidivism rate in other states, Roraback argues the law, which he argued and voted against last year, demonstrates how the sentencing system in Connecticut is “broken.”

Under state law, violent criminals must serve no less than 85 percent of their sentence, regardless of behavior. Roraback said the earned credit system violates that principal.

“Last year we passed an early release bill that allows the state to break its word to the victims of crime and their families,” he said. “I will not vote to repeal the death penalty unless we restore integrity to the system and repeal the good time sentencing.”

Roraback said he intends to propose an amendment to the repeal legislation, both in committee and on the floor of the Senate, but it’s not clear how the loss of his vote will affect the passage of the death penalty repeal bill, should his amendment not fly.

The Senate minority leader, state Sen. John McKinney, said he expects the bill to “squeak” by the senate, and even with two Democrats voting against the bill in the Judiciary Committee, it was still moved forward to public hearing by a wide margin.

McKinney said Roraback’s shift “might” change his initial projections, “depending on a number of circumstances” — how widespread support is for repeal of risk reduction credits, for example.

“The landscape of our political justice system has changed as a result of these risk reduction credits,” he said.

Today's Top Insider StoriesOur journalists provide in-depth analysis and reporting about the people, places and issues that matter most to you. Subscribers get access to all of their comprehensive coverage.Stories from Insider